We’ll be paying Russ 3 mil more than LeBron next season!
He signed his epic extension the summer before he was traded to Houston with OKC! I’m sure they’d be excited to welcome him back with arms open and wide!!
AD will be an absolute bargain at only $40 million next season!!
44+47+40=131 million!!! (roughly, didn’t bother to count the hundred thousands or less so that’s more like 132)!!!
Cap might be as high as $141 mil (and us having THT @ 10 mil, Austin at 1 mil and Stanley J @ 2 mil) we’re already over the the cap and into tax territory this summer!!! That’s with just 6 signed players (don’t worry about our draft picks this summer, we ain’t got one!!! In either round!!!!)
Start thinking about your favorite five vet minimum deals for next summer now!!!!
It’s really hard to create a big 3 without drafting at least one of them. And it wouldn’t be as bad if Russ was playing at a superstar level. Unfortunately he’s not even playing at a 20 mil level. Our only hope is that he opts out and signs for more years like CP3 did with the Suns. It would be even better if if he did it with another team. I would personally see if we can land Williams from OKC. He’s under paid at 2 mil and is under contract one more year. There is als a chance that Nunn could be forced into opting in to his option year. at least that would give us 2 more younger guys that would be better then min contract guys. we also have our bi annual next season that is worth close to 4 mil, so that could come in handy. that said, with Russ playing the way he has, next year would require perfect health from AD and Lebron and that never happens.
I would rather keep Monk over THT.
Monk would be a better option as third superstar than Russ. Lakers’ top priority should be figuring out how to move Russ so they can lock up Monk on a long-term deal as their third start.
LeBron, AD, and Monk is a better more flexible big three than LeBron, AD, and Russ. Monk is not the playmaker Russ is but he’s a better scorer at all three levels and frankly a better and more attentive defender. Finding two more starter to go with LeBron, AD, and Malik is so much simpler than with Russ at the third.
Lakers can likely re-sign Monk for full $10M MLE for 3 years, which would hard cap them but set them up with a lot more options than we had when Russ was the third wheel. Monk as the third star is the path the Lakers need to pursue and moving Russ now or this summer is a critical step to rebuilding a championship roster.
I think Monk could get better offers than the MLE at this point. He is a dynamic scorer as we all know but he is improving on D. He’s basically everything we hoped THT could become but already there. The 10 mil, to me anyway, was always paying to keep potential and not deal with a RFA. Well, we won’t be dealing with a RFA at least…